SEATTLE, WA – Thanks to a law passed in 2021, House Bill 1054, police across the state of Washington have seen repercussions in connection with their inability to pursue wanted vehicles. Those repercussions, of course, have ended up affecting the already suffering public safety.
Over 15 minutes of newly released audio from 911 dispatch with an unnamed victim revealed that in June of 2022, Seattle Police Department (SPD) officers were forced to allow a domestic violence suspect to get away with the victim in the car because they were no longer allowed to pursue, something the suspect appeared to know and take advantage of.
The Facebook page Safe Seattle shared the audio and offered a summary of the incident. Neither the victim nor the suspect were identified in the post, although it appears that the police do know who they are due to a stated “not pleasant history together.”
The victim’s phone called 911 when things got heated between her and the suspect. It’s unclear whether the call was made on purpose.
The male suspect in the call threatens the female victim several times, including telling her that he’s going to break her jaw, put her to sleep, pop her in the head, knock her out, and punch her in the head as hard as he can. The woman can be heard sobbing and screaming for several minutes of the call.
Sirens are heard, indicating a traffic stop by police, but the male tells the victim to act like she’s going to pull over but then “drive off.” SPD disengaged before initiating a pursuit, despite the danger posed to the victim.
A second file, shared with Law Enforcement Today, was obtained by Safe Seattle. On this file, the SPD officer who initiated the traffic stop on the vehicle can be heard saying, “I’m not going to pursue them.”
“So why didn't the officer stop this car?” Safe Seattle wrote. “It's because of recent changes to the law on police pursuits. In 2021, the state legislature passed [ESHB1054], raising the standard for stops and pursuits from a ‘reasonable suspicion’ to a ‘probable cause’ to believe that the driver has committed a serious crime. Although that law was later modified somewhat, officers in Seattle are still reluctant to pursue a vehicle unless they witness the driver committing a serious crime, and in this case, that standard was apparently not met.”
According to a June 2022 article by Center Square, “The Washington State Patrol reports nearly a thousand drivers essentially ignored troopers’ lights and sirens during the first five months of this year. Between January 1 and May 17, 934 people on the state’s highways kept going when troopers tried to pull them over for a traffic stop.”
Anecdotally, this author has heard about numerous situations out of Washington State where subjects of traffic stops simply pull away from local officers and deputies, with little fear of consequences.
In 2021, ESHB 1054 passed along party lines, with the Democratic majority changing the long-set “objectively reasonable” standard set in Graham v. Connor in 1989, along with several other changes that have led to the suffering of public safety.
Now, State Representative Jim Walsh, who is also the newly elected Chairman of the Washington State Republican Party, has filed Initiative 2113, meant to restore police pursuit with reasonable suspicion as the standard.
“By allowing police to pursue criminals,” Walsh said, “I-2113 can help fix a broken system handcuffing our law enforcement. It’s common-sense policy: If someone commits a crime, police should be able to pursue and make an arrest. This is a policy that all voters can unite behind, because people care about restoring safe neighborhoods and protecting their families. It’s that simple.”
Listen to the audio on the call HERE.
The argument on the obtained phone call appears to have something to do with the victim treating the suspect like a “kid” and a “joke.” The male suspect can be heard at one point saying to the victim, “I’ll choke you the f*ck to sleep.” The woman is sobbing as the male continues to threaten her. “Move again!” he yells several times, as she continues to sob and sounds consistent with a struggle can be heard. “Shut the f*ck up, b*tch,” he says multiple times.
The suspect does a count down from five, yells at her again, and then she is quiet for a time, until he tells her to shut up again, and says, “You started it. A grown ass man and you started it with me…I’m gonna break your jaw.”
“Get off me!” the woman yells several times with increasing intensity.
“Now you gonna go to sleep. Now you gonna go to sleep, I’m not playing with you,” he says back.
The victim’s voice is strained at this point, and she begins begging the man to let her go so she can get her son. “I said I’m sorry!” she yells at him, and sobbing can again be heard.
“Shut up before I pop you in the f*cking head! Shut up, b*tch!” he yells back. “Keep talking, I’m gonna start punching you in the head as hard as I can.”
Dispatch appears to send an SPD officer to the location of the vehicle, which, it was later revealed, was being tracked by the phone’s GPS.
It sounds as if the victim mentions that the police are nearby, and the suspect says, “Then drive off, b*tch! Hurry up before I knock you out! You called the police?”
“I never called the police!” the woman says. “Please, I need to go get my son!”
“The police are coming. Shut up before I knock you out. Hurry up! Go straight, all the way across! Now, b*tch!” The woman continues screaming and sobbing and saying she did not call the police. He continues threatening her and yelling, telling her to shut up before he “starts punching.”
The threats continue until police sirens can be heard in the background. At this point, the man tells the victim, “Act like you about to pull over, then drive off.” When an officer can be heard on the PA telling the driver to turn off the car, the suspect says, “Drive off right now! Drive off! He ain’t gonna stop you.” A few seconds later of more arguing and the suspect yells, “Drive the car, b*tch!”
He also tells her to drive fast, drive in the wrong lane, and drive into “incoming traffic.”
“A separate audio recording,” Safe Seattle said in the post, “…has the officer on the line with the 911 dispatcher telling her that he's not going to pursue.”
When the suspect starts accusing the victim’s children of calling the police after the two were arguing at their house, the phone line disconnects.
“Police later visited the woman at her apartment in response to a plea from the woman's mother,” Safe Seattle said, “whom the man had also threatened. Fortunately, the neither woman was harmed, but it's easy to see how this situation could have turned out much worse."
Over 15 minutes of newly released audio from 911 dispatch with an unnamed victim revealed that in June of 2022, Seattle Police Department (SPD) officers were forced to allow a domestic violence suspect to get away with the victim in the car because they were no longer allowed to pursue, something the suspect appeared to know and take advantage of.
The Facebook page Safe Seattle shared the audio and offered a summary of the incident. Neither the victim nor the suspect were identified in the post, although it appears that the police do know who they are due to a stated “not pleasant history together.”
The victim’s phone called 911 when things got heated between her and the suspect. It’s unclear whether the call was made on purpose.
The male suspect in the call threatens the female victim several times, including telling her that he’s going to break her jaw, put her to sleep, pop her in the head, knock her out, and punch her in the head as hard as he can. The woman can be heard sobbing and screaming for several minutes of the call.
Sirens are heard, indicating a traffic stop by police, but the male tells the victim to act like she’s going to pull over but then “drive off.” SPD disengaged before initiating a pursuit, despite the danger posed to the victim.
A second file, shared with Law Enforcement Today, was obtained by Safe Seattle. On this file, the SPD officer who initiated the traffic stop on the vehicle can be heard saying, “I’m not going to pursue them.”
“So why didn't the officer stop this car?” Safe Seattle wrote. “It's because of recent changes to the law on police pursuits. In 2021, the state legislature passed [ESHB1054], raising the standard for stops and pursuits from a ‘reasonable suspicion’ to a ‘probable cause’ to believe that the driver has committed a serious crime. Although that law was later modified somewhat, officers in Seattle are still reluctant to pursue a vehicle unless they witness the driver committing a serious crime, and in this case, that standard was apparently not met.”
According to a June 2022 article by Center Square, “The Washington State Patrol reports nearly a thousand drivers essentially ignored troopers’ lights and sirens during the first five months of this year. Between January 1 and May 17, 934 people on the state’s highways kept going when troopers tried to pull them over for a traffic stop.”
Anecdotally, this author has heard about numerous situations out of Washington State where subjects of traffic stops simply pull away from local officers and deputies, with little fear of consequences.
In 2021, ESHB 1054 passed along party lines, with the Democratic majority changing the long-set “objectively reasonable” standard set in Graham v. Connor in 1989, along with several other changes that have led to the suffering of public safety.
Now, State Representative Jim Walsh, who is also the newly elected Chairman of the Washington State Republican Party, has filed Initiative 2113, meant to restore police pursuit with reasonable suspicion as the standard.
“By allowing police to pursue criminals,” Walsh said, “I-2113 can help fix a broken system handcuffing our law enforcement. It’s common-sense policy: If someone commits a crime, police should be able to pursue and make an arrest. This is a policy that all voters can unite behind, because people care about restoring safe neighborhoods and protecting their families. It’s that simple.”
Listen to the audio on the call HERE.
The argument on the obtained phone call appears to have something to do with the victim treating the suspect like a “kid” and a “joke.” The male suspect can be heard at one point saying to the victim, “I’ll choke you the f*ck to sleep.” The woman is sobbing as the male continues to threaten her. “Move again!” he yells several times, as she continues to sob and sounds consistent with a struggle can be heard. “Shut the f*ck up, b*tch,” he says multiple times.
The suspect does a count down from five, yells at her again, and then she is quiet for a time, until he tells her to shut up again, and says, “You started it. A grown ass man and you started it with me…I’m gonna break your jaw.”
“Get off me!” the woman yells several times with increasing intensity.
“Now you gonna go to sleep. Now you gonna go to sleep, I’m not playing with you,” he says back.
The victim’s voice is strained at this point, and she begins begging the man to let her go so she can get her son. “I said I’m sorry!” she yells at him, and sobbing can again be heard.
“Shut up before I pop you in the f*cking head! Shut up, b*tch!” he yells back. “Keep talking, I’m gonna start punching you in the head as hard as I can.”
Dispatch appears to send an SPD officer to the location of the vehicle, which, it was later revealed, was being tracked by the phone’s GPS.
It sounds as if the victim mentions that the police are nearby, and the suspect says, “Then drive off, b*tch! Hurry up before I knock you out! You called the police?”
“I never called the police!” the woman says. “Please, I need to go get my son!”
“The police are coming. Shut up before I knock you out. Hurry up! Go straight, all the way across! Now, b*tch!” The woman continues screaming and sobbing and saying she did not call the police. He continues threatening her and yelling, telling her to shut up before he “starts punching.”
The threats continue until police sirens can be heard in the background. At this point, the man tells the victim, “Act like you about to pull over, then drive off.” When an officer can be heard on the PA telling the driver to turn off the car, the suspect says, “Drive off right now! Drive off! He ain’t gonna stop you.” A few seconds later of more arguing and the suspect yells, “Drive the car, b*tch!”
He also tells her to drive fast, drive in the wrong lane, and drive into “incoming traffic.”
“A separate audio recording,” Safe Seattle said in the post, “…has the officer on the line with the 911 dispatcher telling her that he's not going to pursue.”
When the suspect starts accusing the victim’s children of calling the police after the two were arguing at their house, the phone line disconnects.
“Police later visited the woman at her apartment in response to a plea from the woman's mother,” Safe Seattle said, “whom the man had also threatened. Fortunately, the neither woman was harmed, but it's easy to see how this situation could have turned out much worse."
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